Kolb's fellow conference members, however, continued on Friday to confirm that the chamber's minority leader told them the governor threatened to campaign against those who failed to support a fiscal package that, hours later, passed the Assembly with a handful of no votes.

Kolb's comments to his members were first reported Friday in the Times Union, which heard accounts from four separate sources who were in the conference room at the time.

In Binghamton Friday morning to sign one of the bills, Cuomo answered a reporter's question by calling the story "inaccurate."

Cuomo didn't specify what was inaccurate about it, except to note that he told Kolb a vote against the measure was a vote for deep cuts to education and Medicaid in the coming fiscal year — a point that had been included in the story as a quote from Cuomo spokesman Josh Vlasto.

The article's description of Kolb's account of the call was echoed Friday in numerous reports posted online by other statehouse reporters.

In a brief interview Friday afternoon, Kolb said he wouldn't divulge anything about the call.

"What I'm going to say to you honestly is that any conversation I have with the governor or legislators, I don't discuss those conversations," said the Canandaigua Republican, who has led the conference for more than two years. "Not the tone, the spirit, the details. ... That's just not me."

Nor would Kolb confirm or deny any of his members' descriptions of what he reportedly told them Wednesday night. Was he worried that Cuomo would campaign in the districts of those who voted against the budget bill?

"Absolutely not," Kolb said.

Despite Cuomo's comments in Binghamton and his press office's previous willingness to discuss the contents of the call, his spokesman decided on a different course Friday afternoon — after the first reports of Kolb's decision to remain silent were posted online.

"The governor does not discuss details of private conversations," Vlasto wrote in an email. "Leader Kolb and the governor have a good working relationship and while there will be issues on which they don't agree from time to time, their relationship is always cordial and productive."